A. Field of the Invention
The device of the present invention generally relates to molded case circuit breakers and, more particularly, to solenoid operators for changing the operational condition of the circuit breakers.
B. Description of the Prior Art
Circuit breakers and, more particularly molded case circuit breakers are old and well known in the prior art. Examples of such devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,186,251; 2,492,009; 3,239,638; 3,525,959; 3,590,325; 3,614,685; 3,775,713; 3,783,423; 3,805,199; 3,815,059; 3,863,042; 3,959,695; 4,077,025; 4,166,205; 4,258,403; and 4,295,025. In general, prior art molded case circuit breakers have been provided with movable contact arrangements and operating mechanisms designed to provide protection for an electrical circuit or system against electrical faults, specifically, electrical overload conditions, low level short circuit or fault current conditions, and, in some cases, high level short circuit or fault current conditions. Prior art devices have utilized an operating mechanism having trip mechanism for controlling the movement of an over-center toggle mechanism to separate a pair of electrical contacts upon an overload condition or upon a short circuit or fault current condition. Such trip mechanisms have included a bimetal movable in response to an overload condition to rotate a trip bar, resulting in the movement of the over-center toggle mechanism to open a pair of electrical circuit breaker contacts. Such prior art devices have also utilized an armature movable in response to the flow of short circuit or fault current to similarly rotate the trip bar to cause the pair of contacts to separate. At least some prior art devices use blow-apart contacts to rapidly interrupt the flow of high level short circuit or fault currents. The operating mechanisms of many prior art devices include rotatable cross bars for moving upper electrical contacts into and out of engagement with lower electrical contacts in each pole or phase of the circuit breakers. The operating mechanisms of typical prior art devices also include externally extending manually engageable handles for actuating the rotable cross bars to move the upper electrical contacts into and out of engagement with the lower electrical contacts. Many prior art devices also utilize an electromechnical or solenoid actuated operator for moving the handle from a remote location between its ON position and its OFF position.
While many prior art devices have provided adequate protection against fault conditions in an electrical circuit, a need exists for dimensionally small molded case circuit breakers capable of fast, effective and reliable operation and, more specifically, for a single coil solenoid operator for inexpensively, effectively and reliably achieving rectilinear movement of a manually engageable handle of a circuit breaker.